Release Date: March 26, 2004
Starring: Heath Ledger, Orlando Bloom, Geoffrey Rush, Naomi Watts
Directed by: Gregor Jordan
Written by: Robert Drew, John M. McDonagh
Distributed by: Universal Pictures
MPAA Rating: R (violence, brief nudity)
Americans will remember Jesse James as an iconic, Robin Hood-like hero of the Wild West. He was one of those “good” bad guys: though he killed and he stole, it was only after his family and way of life were threatened. Anyone else, given the circumstances, might have done the same -- including the eponymous outlaw hero of Gregor Jordan’s Ned Kelly, which details the life and times of one of Australia’s most famous gangsters.
The events in Ned Kelly take place on the other side of the world from James, in Australia during the 1870’s, as Kelly (Heath Ledger), an Irish farmer accused of stealing a horse and sent to a prison colony in Australia for three years. Once out, he finds the peaceful way of life he once knew threatened by the British, and his family threatened by Constable Alexander Fitzpatrick (Kiri Paramore).
In order to strike back, Kelly forms a gang with his brother Dan (Laurence Kinlan), his best friend Joe Byrne (Orlando Bloom), and Steve Hart (Phil Barantini), and takes advantage of the abundance of Irishmen and native Australians who have a bone to pick with the Brits. Things proceed in an amicable manner until the Kelly Gang kills three officers of the crown and robs a bank, thus becoming enemies of the state. The queen’s top man on the scene, Superintendent Hare (Geoffrey Rush), is then brought in to apprehend Kelly and his gang. The chase and standoff thus begin.
It’s always fun seeing a legend unfold that isn’t so widely known. Based on the novel Our Sunshine by Robert Drew, the biography of the Irish-Australian bushranger (cowboy) turned legendary outlaw, the screenplay by Drew and John McDonagh definitely gives a nice overview of Kelly’s life. From beginning to end, the story of Ned Kelly will have viewers intrigued by our hero’s life, what he did, and why he did it.
However, this is McDonagh’s first writing credit, and the script has a few flaws typical of a rookie screenwriter. One aspect of the film that suffers is the romantic subplot between Ned Kelly and an upper-class British woman, Julia Cook (Naomi Watts). But other than a few lustful glances and a moment of passion between them, there isn’t much in the way of development, and the romance only seems out of place (it doesn’t make full use of the talented Naomi Watts, either).
Another big question mark is Superintendent Hare, who has the least amount of dialogue of any major character in the movie, and is hardly given any background, either. And once again, a brilliant actor’s talents are wasted, as Geoffrey Rush doesn’t have much to do in the part except chew scenery. While it might be possible to attribute these gaps to holes in the historical record of events, they throw off the film’s rhythm enough to warrant a bit of coloring outside the lines by Drew and McDonagh.
Despite its plot holes, however, the movie is captivating in the sense that most real-life actioners are captivating: the director, Gregor Jordan, fluidly blends chase scenes and shoot-outs with romance and comedy. It has all of the elements you could want in such a film, even with the historical angle, which makes it a marked improvement over the previous historical epic to star Heath Ledger, The Four Feathers.
Ned Kelly also takes risks in the story that you might not expect in a Heath Ledger starrer, either. In one scene, a wild horse, unable to be tamed, is going to be put to death by its owner. Kelly volunteers to tame the horse, partly to show his humanity and partly to impress Julia, who is watching. And where a typical melodrama might have used the scene to show the audience how wonderful Ned is with Julia looking on, the scene eventually demonstrates the ruthless cruelty that often characterizes real life -- in the end, the owner shoots the horse even after Ned has tamed it.
Just the same, director Jordan takes a few too many liberties in other parts of the film. He begins with Ned’s arrest, one of the last events in the film’s storyline, and then flashes back to the beginning of Ned’s story, starting with his release from jail and through the rise and fall of his gang. It’s also unclear as to how Kelly and his gang avoid the British for so long -- often in films like this, somewhat mythical revolutionary figures are given more credit than they deserve.
On the whole, the story is a good one, though, and a retelling like this doesn’t hurt -- the last treatment of the tale was Tony Richardson’s 1970 version with Mick Jagger as Ned Kelly (doubtless many will wonder whether Heath Ledger as Ned Kelly is any better). While the film is average at best in most respects, it occasionally flirts with something more substantial. At the least, Ned Kelly is fun to watch for a couple of hours.
-- Michael J. Eiff (mjeiff@hotmail.com)